Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Tuesday January 11, 2011 @05:30PM
from the bet-it-knows-minor-chords-too dept.

wirelessdreamer writes "Using a real guitar, with a hex-aphonic pickup, and guitar synth rock band 3 pro guitar mode can be played NOW with a real guitar. Thanks to the game2midi project for makeing g2ghpro a multiplatform release. Selfless promotion as the submitter is the game2midi project lead :)"

You know, I bought one of these "YouRock" electronic guitar controllers that's mostly meant for games like guitar hero, and it's an absolutely great little instrument for making music. Have to go back to shoveling snow or I'd go get the link. It makes a fantastic guitar-like controller for synthesis and MIDI.

There's another great-looking digital non-guitar guitar, I think made by an outfit called "Misa". I'm dying to get my hands on one but haven't yet, mostly because I'm getting pushback from the wife f

I think that comic strip pretty much captures my feelings about Rock Band. I don't know why guitar players are so defensive about Rock Band. I don't see anyone making comparisons between rock band and real guitars except for people who play real guitars. We get it guys. Rock band is not like playing a real instrument. Just like playing Madden is not at all like playing real football. But it's still fun. Why does it offend you so much that people are having fun? Move on with it.

I think this is usually due to a case of LGD, Lead Guitarist Disease. As some other posters have pointed out, these are usually guitar players who aren't nearly as good as they think they are, or they're people who don't really care about playing music, rather they take up an instrument in the hopes that people will think it's cool and like them.

And before anyone tells me how full of it I am, I have been playing guitar for 25 years, played in several bands over the years, and overcame my own case

Have you actually played Rockband 3 in pro mode? Rockband singlehandedly coached me into learning the Keyboard. Like, an actual one. That is, I can now play music on my grandmothers reed organ. My buddy is now a heck of a drummer thanks to Rockband 2 & 3 (again, he now owns a real (albeit electric) drum set & plays in a real band). And if they ever put out a bass version of their new Mustang, I'll pick that up too! Just because there's an "Easy Mode" doesn't mean there isn't more. Heck, even Madden has that new Rookie mode doesn't it?

This.
The criticism that Rock Band doesn't improve musical ability or chops is simply not true anymore. I have my friend's Casio keybaord hooked up to the game (albeit right hand only charts). I have my Alesis edrums working with the game and even mapped over the MIDI notes for the hi-hat to work. There is a Squier coming out for the game in March.
Aside from this, what's with the prevalent condescension towards music games? I personally don't like most FPS games, but I don't consider everyone who pla

So you are saying just because it requires no skill it must not be fun? I hasten to differ.
I enjoy games in all forms. I love Mass Effect for the story and RPG gameplay, I love super meat boy for the hard platformer gameplay, I love rock band for the casual fun while listening to good music gameplay, I love Empire Earth 2 for my tactical gameplay.
I could go on.
Saying that just because it requires no skill (which isn't true, hand-eye coordination is a skill), it can't be fun is stupid. Fact is, I enjoy

No, playing a real guitar is totally hardcore. Fuck the game. Kids from my generation dreamed of being rock stars, not of sitting in front of the boob tube playing what amounts to a nursery school game.

The problem isn't the game. The game is basically a Simon game, just with rock music. Wonderful, that is fine if that sort of memory/reaction game is your thing. The problem is that far too many people think they are badass because they can "play" a song in GH/RB. There are so damn many videos online of people showing off at how good they are at a song. They really seem to have the idea that they are talented by being able to do it and that they are actually "playing" the music.

Or maybe they're just proud that they're good at the game? Maybe it has nothing to do with playing real music. Maybe you're reading too much into it. I've seen people who are really good at call of duty, and was fairly impressed with it. But I don't immediately disregard it with the claim that "they think they're actually shooting people." I'm pretty sure most of them realize that what they're good at is the GAME ITSELF, and not the subject the game emulates. The same is true with Rockband.

Besides, if you really look at all the posts in this thread, you won't see anyone making the claim that playing Rockband is equivalent to playing a real instrument. The only people who bring up real instruments when discussing rockband are people like you, who are for some reason are incredibly defensive of the game. Relax. Someone being good at a game isn't going to distract from you impressing people with a real guitar. There's no threat.

And if you look online, you'll find plenty of other people on there with videos showing off how good they are at COD, or Halo, or Pacman, or whatever.
People are showing they are good at the game - they are not saying it makes them able to play the actual instrument.

RB3 will teach you to play a real guitar. And if you can 'play' a song in pro-mode with the Fender RB3 controller; you'll be able to play that song on any guitar you want. Because it's a real guitar.

Yes, it will still take time and effort to learn guitar - but RB3 is going to make it significantly more welcoming to new comers. It will be a game, with easy to visualize progress, rewards, and immediate feedback on how well you are playing. And if you play enough, you'll learn real songs and be able to play them on any guitar you want.

It's a fucking GAME people spend some time playing and then walk away. NO ONE IS PRETENDING IT"S A REAL GUITAR. Not everyone wants to play a guitar, mostly because they don't want to be self inflated douche bags that have a compulsion to miss a point of an activity solely to make a post about being 'better'.

Probably to cover up the fact that they spent years of there life practicing something that got them no where..or maybe that's just you.

The only thing the rock band game controllers teach you is timing; I'm still undecided how useful that experience is in learning to play real music. Rock Band also forces you to concentrate on a single instrument in the music which may be useful for memorizing the song, but then it teaches you a completely false senses of what the actual notes are.

The only thing the rock band game controllers teach you is timing; I'm still undecided how useful that experience is in learning to play real music.

Well, we have some evidence the opposite direction. Apparently being a famous rock band doesn't translate into an ability to play the rock band game. One "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" episode had Kiss playing against Nick the newbie rock wannabe and his pals. Nick and pals creamed Gene and the pros.

Agreed, real guitar and Guitar Hero are different skillsets. I've played the guitar for more than 5000 hours over a period of almost 18 years, and I suck at Guitar Hero. I can do the easy numbers pretty well because I have a good sense of rhythm and I can anticipate most of what's coming at me. But Reign In Blood ? I would have to unlearn the real guitar version and practice for days.

Joe Perry also refuses to play Aerosmith Guitar Hero against his son, because he knows he'll get creamed... so there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that being the guitarist that actually recorded the track in the first place is not much help in playing the game!

That still leaves as an open issues whether or not being good at the game is a help or a hindrance in learning the actual guitar riffs.

I think this is a pretty good idea and would be nice if it could be made more main stream. It gets kinda annoying when you have a bunch of kids bragging about how could they are at guitar hero, even though they can't play a real one at all. It could also help kids learn an instrument that they would otherwise look past since that it would be a video game and therefor automagically cool.

Having fun isn't a problem. It's this idea that there's anything particularly musical about Rock Band.

But if we have to measure things in "cool" and "fun", I'll wager a sixteen year old who can play in a real rock band with even minimal competency is going to get a lot more chicks than some sixteen year old who has figured out how to press colored buttons in the appropriate sequence.

Having fun isn't a problem. It's this idea that there's anything particularly musical about Rock Band.

Oh come on now. At the VERY LEAST you get a sense for rhythm.

Plastic Guitar/Bass? Yeah probably the least realistic of the 3/4 piece band they try to imitate, but it does at least open the idea to people that the guitar is more than just knowing your chords, as strumming timing proves to be one of the more difficult parts of expert mode.

The Vocals? A little glitchy here and there, and no you don't have to even be in the proper key, but thats the same for every Kareoke game out there, I treat Rock Band no di

Sure, but who cares? I don't EVER hear anyone who plays rockband comment that they expect to get chicks or look super cool while doing it. No, quite the opposite, I only ever seem to hear real guitar players bitching that playing a real guitar is so much cooler and that playing rockband is dumb and fake and blah blah blah... Fine. Great. Playing a real guitar is 100 times more awesome. I concede. You don't have to point that out EVERY TIME the game is being discussed. Just let us rockbanders have our

I know what you mean. I used to think I was a cool Wizard when I played nethack, but then it dawned on me that I wasn't, because it wasn't real. So, I went to the basement of my grandparents house to walk around instead. That was more like the real thing. That got kinda boring pretty soon as there was only one level and it's the same every time, not randomly generated, like it should be. Of course, I haven't died, so maybe it's saved when I ascend the staircase, I don't know.

And there are no monsters. Not any more. I did run across a few, well, I guess they were gridbugs, but I haven't seen any more since.

I realized there must be some secret passages somewhere, as I've only discovered three rooms so far. I've tried searching and searching and my legs are pretty sore from kicking all the walls at every, well, foot. (btw, ever noticed how the real world is 3d and nethack is 2d?), but I just can't find the secret doors.

Anyway, I think it's gonna get better, because I've got myself a pick-axe now. I've started chipping away at the walls and the floor too. I'm bound to run into a secret passage or dig through to the next level soon, but man, digging with a pick-axe is way harder and time-consuming in the real world than it is in nethack!

I agree it's one of the greatest things since sliced bread, but it's important to keep the "fun" context of Guitar Hero/Rock Band as well. People don't play it because they want to play a real guitar; they play it because it's fun. Now, I happen to think that learning some real skills from the game is insanely awesome. I started working on the easy difficulty levels having never touched a guitar before. Three weeks later, I can play power chords, and I've borrowed an acoustic from my father-in-law and I

The Axon Ax 100 that he's using lists for ~$650. The pickup he's using (Roland Gk-3a) is another $200. Pretty neat trick if you've already got the equipment, but for the same price you could buy the Rock Band 3 guitar controller and a semi-decent regular guitar.

Why wait when you can just purchase Power Gig, which will teach you how to play the songs, and comes with a real guitar?

Because the guitar is shit and it won't really teach you how to play it anyway [arstechnica.com]. But a Squier Strat is a credible if unamazing instrument and many of us already own a game console to which it can be attached if and when it comes out. My household (meaning my lady and myself) plan to buy the game, the strat, and a MIDI connection kit so I can plug in my keyboard because in pro mode you play the actual songs including chords... and the guitar is an immense value on its own, being a MIDI controller. That is, if

I've used it, it does do what it claims. Disney also has their own version out, but it's not as advanced.

But is it actually better than Rock Band 3? Have you used RB3 with the controller that hasn't been released? I looked at the rhythm game screenshots for Power Gig and it looks pretty much like an uglier version of Rock Band 3 on Pro.

Either way I don't want a shitty plastic guitar, so suggesting that it comes with a real guitar is bullshit. It comes with a shitty plastic guitar only suitable for children who can't play music.

Why do you keep lying? THERE IS NO REAL PLAYING OF A GUITAR in Power Gig! I bought the game at Best Buy accidentally the day after Christmas. Unlocked all of the songs so my fiancee could play Dave Matthews. Bought a guitar amp and patch cord so I could actually play it. Again, do not listen to this guy.

I do disagree that PowerGig is as bad as the reviews it received. I have played Rock Band and Guitar Hero and using the controller will knock you down a level, but that should be expected. It does motivate m

It's a proper electric guitar, with a phono jack for plugging into an amp, but it can also be used as an RB3 controller via the official MIDI adapter.

Of course, the same is true of *any* cheap MIDI electric guitar, but this thing costs half as much as the cheapest MIDI guitars, and has some game-related buttons on it too that get properly mapped via the guitar->MIDI->RB3 chain.

This is real cute, but what I really want, and I'm not alone in this, is SOFTWARE that incorporates guitar lessons into a game. Have it process the audio input and evaluate my performance in real-time, like a guitar prof would do. I don't want the instrument to be dumbed down to a 5 input game controller, I want the game to get smarter so I can learn with that abstract carrot dangling on my screen, in the form of a high score.

That's exactly what pro mode is in RB 3. I play with the Fender mustang pro midi controller in pro mode on RB 3. There are lessons that show you how to play. There are different difficulty songs for you to work through.

There are high scores, stars your performance is rated, you also have achievements, your friends pro scores show up for you to try and beat. I also play real guitar and when you play a song in RB3 in pro mode on expert you are playing the song note for note but it also scales down so on easy

I'm not sure if you are serious or trolling; but that's pretty much exactly what Rock Band 3 does.

There hasn't been nearly as much buzz about this as I would have expected (probably because the guitar, being made by Fender, isn't out yet). Anyway, if you buy RB3 and a midi adapter and the special guitar from Fender - you can play the game in 'pro mode'. When I say 'special guitar' I want to emphasize that this is not a 5 button or even 125 button 'fake' guitar. It is a real guitar. It has six strings (y

To elaborate; what this software does is basically the same thing as the Fender guitar. Notice that they have a Roland Gk-3 Pickup on their guitar. That will, effectively, turn any guitar into a Midi guitar.

While it's really 'cool' in a DIY sense; you'd still need to go out and buy a regular guitar. Then you'd need to modify it to use the GK-3 Pickup (which will run you $199 - on the first site I found it). And you still need the RB3 game and midi adapter. And you've got to deal with the additional com

g2ghpro (guitar synth to guitar hero pro) - has full multiplatform support (windows,linux,osx) so Guitar Synthesizers can be used for pro guitar mode in rock band 3. I think some bugs still need to be worked out, so feedback is welcome.

Or, rather then subject myself to the struggle that is the recording industry, with sub-single-digit success percentages, i can come home from working at my real job and play video games. It's fun. Relax.

Exactly. The same goes for people who buy steering wheel controllers for games like GT5. Instead, they should go buy a real car and drive it at high speed rather than pretending in their mom's basement all night. Amirite?

There's nothing wrong with using a guitar shaped controller to play a music-themed game. Enjoying a video game doesn't prevent you from learning to play an instrument, drive a car, or fly a plane. Like John Lennon said, time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.

Music takes practice. It took years of practice for me to get where I am in terms of my singing. It's just not that easy to be able to handle wide ranges of music. Learning the effects alone set me back several years.

And really the same goes for just about anything else of value. If you want to have a developed ear for music, it's going to take a lot of work.

The thing is, playing GT5 with a steering wheel and pedals will actually make you a better driver of real cars, to a point. Most noticeable when something goes wrong in a real car (if you've been playing GT5 without traction control or stability management) and you instinctively know what way to turn the wheel out of a slide. You are trying to compare simulators (GT, flight sims) to arcade games (GH, RB). Better off saying 'playing Outrun wont make you a better driver, like playing Space Invaders won't make

That's funny. I was able to actually play a guitar when Guitar Hero came out, and I enjoyed Guitar Hero immensely. They are two entirely different experiences, and the itch scratched by one is not necessarily scratched by the other.

I don't mind that you don't like the games. To each his own. I do think it's ridiculous to claim that it is because you can play the real guitar. Just say you don't like the games, dragging "I play real guitar" into this just makes you sound like a snob.

I AM and snob, son! I am Data Center Jesus too, but that's a story for IT people. The games on their own are hardly entertaining, and yes, as a real guitar player I find it comical that someone who is not thinks GH/RB are the shit, when their just shit. Play away though, if you love the game, love it! Don't take my word for it, as I've never played them for more than two songs because the idea of tapping a few buttons to pretend to play guitar karaoke is offensive to me. The new midi-controller ones ma

Mod parent up +5 understands-orthogonality. I am a lifelong guitarist and play several other instruments and sing. I scoffed at Guitar Hero a bit as being silly, and eventually played it and got hooked for several months. It is indeed silly but it has way better music than any other video game, involves the same types of eye-hand coordination as most good games even if it lacks the strategic thinking that I normally enjoy in a game, and is in no way an affront to real guitarists anywhere.

Guitar Hero actually made me a better guitarist, too, since playing on Expert mode forces you to use your pinky, something that you can cheat around when playing most styles of lead guitar. That was me, but Guitar Hero actually forced me to develop more dexterity, strength, and speed in my pinky, which led me to use it much more in my melodic lines on the real instrument.

If you have PS2 Amplitude and Frequency, you don't need a single RB or Guitar Hero game.

PS2 game publishers have a habit of shutting down the online multiplayer servers once the game is in the bargain bin. After that, all you get is "DNAS Error -103: This software title is not in service." Furthermore, Frequency and Amplitude have only the 25 or so songs each that they come with; they definitely lack anything like Rock Band Network [wikipedia.org] where prosumers in the USA with an App Hub subscription can make their own songs and submit them to Harmonix.

Yeah! Absolutely! If the drummer shows up, that is. And the singer can carry a tune. And the other guitarist doesn't get too drunk to play. And the bass player's ex-girlfriend didn't just throw all his belongings out of their 3rd floor window just before the show, and she happens to be the singer.

Oh, hell - even then, you're absolutely right. There's nothing like playing live, when you can do it. But still, I thinking of getting Rock Band 3 just so I can play the drums in pro mode, because no one in his rig